Report 742
Report #742 Skillset: Transmology Skill: Throat Org: Illuminati Status: Completed Dec 2011 Furies' Decision: While we believe Illuminati are a strong guild and that reverting the skill to how was may tip them to OP, we think the skill can be tweaked without major redesign. We will investigate tweaking the time delay. Problem: Announce post 1847 changed fleshform sing to be stopped by everything that stops beckoning in addition to the other restrictions that had previously been used to balance the skill. As it stands, sing is strictly inferior to beckon due to the long delay involved (during which the summoning can be broken by a number of methods) and the transformation requirement. Prior to the changes, it could bypass shields, blocking, barrier, walls and the target being off balance, but failed if the target moved away from the singer, changed elevations or moved the singer. 0 R: 0 Solution #1: Revert the changes to fleshform sing introduced in Announce 1847. Sing would go back to having a delay but being much more difficult to block. If necessary, the messages can be changed slightly to justify why sing bypasses mundane barriers. 0 R: 0 Solution #2: Completely remove the delay on fleshform sing. This mirrors the summoning ability available to Celestines and Nihilists without straining credulity by allowing sing to bypass barriers, blocking, etc. as it previously did. 0 R: 0 Solution #3: As solution 2, but modulating the caster's EQ based on temp. insanity levels. No insanity is 4s off balance (twice that of single-target beckon), decreasing to 0.5s at massive insanity. Player Comments: ---on 12/7 @ 02:06 writes: Solution 2 or 3 works, prefer solution 3 ---on 12/7 @ 02:07 writes: Solution 3 ---on 12/7 @ 02:31 writes: Re: Solution 1; Change the current second person messages to something along the lines of "A hauntingly beautiful song fills the air, compelling you to find its source." and "As the song reaches a crescendo, you find yourself at source of the beautiful music." and the third person messages to something like "As the song reaches a crescendo, you find yourself unable to pay attention to anything else. When song ends and your senses return, Elostian has appeared." ---on 12/7 @ 06:42 writes: Solution 2 or 3 sounds good ---on 12/7 @ 23:28 writes: Sol 3 looks good to me ---on 12/8 @ 19:46 writes: Solution 2 or 3, provided it still consumes eq on attempt. ---on 12/22 @ 04:50 writes: Solution 3 is my preference. ---on 12/26 @ 20:34 writes: As per my comment on 747-- based on previous results I don't feel that all guilds are meant to have beckon clones, and Illuminati are -very- good at locking someone down and keeping them in the room. Their 'beckon' equivalent should have more restrictions than beckon itself. I'd like to see the following change: 5s summon time at no insanity, instant at max insanity (or possibly at a level below max), so that they need to work at getting it to its 'best' state (ala Researchers). ---on 12/26 @ 21:06 writes: Sing was forcefully turned into a beckon clone by bugreports and admin changes, so it's not exactly the illuminati's choice that prompted this report. A 5s summon would be an improvement, but it still does not address the inherent problems with a delayed beckon (with a warning!) that has about 10 different ways to stop it. ---on 12/27 @ 01:37 writes: I am confused by Xenthos's suggestion: It makes the skill terrible for group combat initiation (5s is easily enough time to get blocks/walls up) but a very good anti-escape skill (instant beckon that doesn't require an ent). That's exactly the opposite of what you want if there are concerns about making Illuminati too good at preventing running. ---on 12/29 @ 01:14 writes: It's already a very good anti-escape skill, if you've plumped up the insanity on the target. I don't really mind just making it instant in that case. Making it 5s without insanity helps out on the other end of the spectrum, without just making it very powerful both ways. Nothing confusing there-- I don't feel that it needs to be a beckon clone (despite Sojiro's comment it currently is not-- there's even a solution to turn it into an exact mirror). ---on 12/29 @ 08:43 writes: Well, if you really got down to it, you're right, it's not a beckon clone, it's actually worse! ---on 12/29 @ 22:34 writes: Exactly, as I said in my first comment-- it should be! It's just a matter of to what degree. ---on 12/30 @ 06:57 writes: Having it take 5s to summon someone is still strategically useless. Beckon is mostly used to open up group combat fights (it's almost never used 1v1 effectively). Within those 5 seconds, the victim can leave the room, get doubleblocked, put up most forms of walls, sit in a distort-like effect, just keep shielded, put up barrier, sit, and even just throw him/herself offbalance. I've named more than 5 reasonable solutions that render the 5s summon time ineffective for a beckon-like effect